Hiring a Sales Assistant?

[homes for sale anchorage]

Do you think it is a good idea to hire a sales assistant who will answer all phone calls and of course follow up leads. How would it be if the sales assistant is virtual employee?Thanks in advance.

[waynelong]

I think it is an awesome idea to have a licensed assistant. Not sure about the virtual part. I have never understood how to hold virtual assistants accountable and to know what they are doing. Maybe someone can speak to that.

[Spain1]

Ya sure it will definitely help in your business even it will overcome your efforts also.

[Mitch]

Right up my alley! We just had a meeting today with our lead conversion administrators (LCA's). There is a great service out there called LeadQual which will make your first call in 5 minutes and then qualify the lead and do a live transfer if the lead is good. One of my members in Virginia loves them. I'm going to test them with a couple hundred leads shortly.

My opinion is if you are going to have an assistant who is going to be following up on leads, they need to be licensed. If not, they are limited to what they can discuss with your customers...at least they are in Florida.

Word of advice: As the Agent you should make the first call. Have your assistant only call for follow up. The reason is to create the Realtor/Customer relationship. Let them know either you or your assistant will be following up. At that point the assistant takes over until the lead is ready to see homes, then it goes back to the agent to tie the lead up for showings. This all saves from having any disconnect between the lead and you, the Realtor.

It's fairly easy when you have only a few leads, but once you get into the thousands it becomes very difficult unless you are very organized in your follow up system.

[donnalong]

Mitch - I think this is a good plan.

If the agent makes the first call and develops the relationship then they will not mind that the assistant calls and says something like " Hi, I am Mr. Ribak's assistant and he wanted me to follow up with you and make sure you are getting all the information you need" and/or "when will you be moving to our area? " .

[Mitch]

Donna - As you know, I have been trying to perfect this program for two years now. We just made some major changes this week and here is how the week rolled out with our LCA's.

Firstly, they were doing a lot of admin work for their Agents. As I think I mentioned somewhere, they each have 5 Agents that they make calls for. Add in admin work and calls fall by the wayside. As of this last Monday, they are no longer aloud to do any admin work for their Agents. They have to work until they get at least 3 contacts per Agent per day for 5 days per week. It worked great this week. Both LCA's set several appointments over the next two months. They are talking to at least 15 customers per agent per week or 60 per agent per month.

From a brokerage standpoint, I now know that we will be talking to 600 buyers each month and leaving messages on probably 2,000 voice mails per month or so. I have to believe that by actually talking to 300 per month, our sales should follow. Once I get through the next couple of weeks, I will hire our third LCA to handle our final 5 productive Agents that don't have an LCA.

[PreviewOC]

I believe if you have the amount of leads coming in and the agents are too busy showing property, etc. it would be a great idea to have a dedicated person handling the incoming leads. I am looking into this as well, good luck!

[GregPDX]

Mitch, did you test out LeadQual?

Right up my alley! We just had a meeting today with our lead conversion administrators (LCA's). There is a great service out there called LeadQual which will make your first call in 5 minutes and then qualify the lead and do a live transfer if the lead is good. One of my members in Virginia loves them. I'm going to test them with a couple hundred leads shortly.

My opinion is if you are going to have an assistant who is going to be following up on leads, they need to be licensed. If not, they are limited to what they can discuss with your customers...at least they are in Florida.

Word of advice: As the Agent you should make the first call. Have your assistant only call for follow up. The reason is to create the Realtor/Customer relationship. Let them know either you or your assistant will be following up. At that point the assistant takes over until the lead is ready to see homes, then it goes back to the agent to tie the lead up for showings. This all saves from having any disconnect between the lead and you, the Realtor.

It's fairly easy when you have only a few leads, but once you get into the thousands it becomes very difficult unless you are very organized in your follow up system.

[Mitch]

Greg - I have one of my members currently using them and very satisfied. Another member just started so I'll get a report from him in the next 30 days or so. They have a 60-70% contact rate and then do a live transfer if the lead wants to talk to a Realtor at that moment.

I want to use it in my office, but it becomes a little more complex for us because of the amount of agents and our automated lead assignment. I want to give our new system until March before I start adding more changes. My poor Agents are constantly in a state of change!

[Gloria Singer]

Can I ask how you compensate the LCA? Do the agents pay them a percentage of each commission? Straight salary paid by you? Please advise.
Gloria